Meaning & Origins

Coined by Sir Walter Scott for the character Cedric of Rotherwood in Ivanhoe (1819). It seems to be an altered form of Cerdic, the name of the traditional founder of the kingdom of Wessex. Cerdic was a Saxon (Scott's novel also has a Saxon setting), and his name is presumably of Germanic origin, but the formation is not clear. The name has acquired something of a ‘sissy’ image, partly on account of Cedric Errol Fauntleroy, the long-haired, velvet-suited boy hero of Frances Hodgson Burnett's Little Lord Fauntleroy (1886). A well-known bearer was the film actor Sir Cedric Hardwicke (1893–1964).